


If I Was There

by Indehed



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Coda, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:13:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24199519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indehed/pseuds/Indehed
Summary: Steve returns to Hawaii, 6 months after the end of the series finale.This is just a simple scene that I believe was left off the cutting room floor!Tagged as gen as it's canon compliant but feel free to see the mcdanno :)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 124





	If I Was There

Danny stood watching the arrivals area, shifting his weight from foot to foot and peering around all the other incoming travelers until finally, a face he recognized walked towards him.

“Hey,” Steve said, his bag slung over one shoulder. He looked good, relaxed. He could use a shave, though at least he’d only grown out the stubble a little and didn’t need to get rid of a full beard. He looked… rugged. Which must come from his recent nomadic lifestyle. “Is that for me?” he pointed at the lei that was on Danny’s arm. 

“Yes, it is. Apparently, this is how I am supposed to greet you back to the island. The lady at the stand told me I had to.”

“And here I thought you were embracing Hawaii, not being bullied into a sale,” Steve bent just enough for Danny to get the lei over his head and then straightened, smiling at his partner. 

“So I got a text asking me to meet you here but no details, something you excel in missing out all the time, so what’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re here but for how long, y’know? Just a visit or for good or, I dunno, are you just back to sell the house then disappear completely?”

Steve sighed. “It was great to explore and relax. Just do nothing for a while. No car chases, no robberies, murders, terrorists… but traveling and living out of a suitcase can only last for so long.”

“Translation, you were bored.”

Steve huffed out a laugh, though he didn’t disagree. “And I ran out of banked holiday days.”

“So you were bored… and broke,” Danny supplied. “Y’know I heard Catherine was with you.”

“Yeah, she helped get me started out, put me in touch with some contacts she has in some other countries. As soon as she got a new assignment she was off again. Like I said, I needed to do this alone without any reminders of the past.”

“So you’ve really been traveling alone all this time? Off the grid and just living a simple life?”

“Pretty much.” 

“And you found your peace or whatever? Worked out what you want from your life?”

“I heard what happened at the bank,” Steve said, looking earnestly at Danny as he seemed to change the subject abruptly. “You were lucky those guys were amateurs with tasers and not pros with automatic weapons.”

Danny felt his hackles rising. “Hey now, I don’t know what the Junior snitch said, but I knew exactly what I was doing. I wouldn’t have gone in there if I didn’t already have a damned good idea what I was up against. But why bring this up now, huh?”

“I just… when I left I felt like I was a liability. Like my decisions were going to get people hurt or killed. What happened with that woman and her kid when we met Lincoln, or what could have happened to you when Daiyu Mei had you. I kept thinking that people were getting hurt because of me and I couldn’t do my job if I was second-guessing myself.”

“I’ve told you so many times that none of that was your fault.”

“And I appreciate that, but it doesn’t stop me feeling like it was. Then I heard about the bank heist and my first thought wasn’t how much worse it could have been if I’d been there, but that maybe if I had, then you wouldn’t have got hurt. I’d have had your back.”

“The team still had my back. And I bruised my ribs, it’s not a big deal.”

Steve wavered. To him, maybe it was a big deal. His eureka moment apparently came at the cost of Danny getting kicked in the ribs when he wasn't around. “Junior sent me the reports and before you call him a snitch again, remember I’m still in charge of Five-0. I spent time looking over everything and yes, you and the team did exactly what you needed to do with the information you had. But if I was there… I think it would have ended sooner, that’s all.”

“There’s the Steve McGarrett I know and love. A man who always thinks he’s the best at everything. You can’t know you’d have done any better, these situations are always fluid and changeable.”

“Yeah, they are. And after going through the reports I realized that I needed to be here to do just that. To keep control of the situations, to be in charge of the team rather than worrying from afar. And yes, to know that the decisions I make are the best ones given the circumstances.”

“You got your mojo back,” Danny smiled up at him and Steve returned it with a dopey grin. Things felt good; like maybe it would be easy to just slip back into their old selves even after six months without Steve around. Danny reached up and squeezed Steve’s shoulder before pulling him along so they could leave the airport.

Steve’s phone rang and he answered. “McGarrett… okay, we’ll be right there.”

“What was that?”

“We’ve got a case.”

“You’ve been back in Hawaii all of two minutes and already dispatch is calling you rather than me when Five-0 picks up a new case?”

“I’m back, baby,” Steve said as they walked out into the Hawaiian sun. He reached out a hand and Danny looked at it, perplexed. “Keys,” Steve demanded. 

“I am not giving you my car keys. It’s a new car and no one else has driven it but me since I got it. It’s like heaven.”

Steve raised an eyebrow but kept his hand out as they walked to the car park. “Fork ‘em over. Don’t make me find them myself.”

“No!” Danny replied and then had to try to contort himself away from Steve who began trying to grab for him and dig his hands into Danny’s pockets until he was triumphant and Danny growled in dissatisfaction at losing their little battle. 

As they climbed into the midnight blue, new model Camaro - with Danny frustratingly in the passenger seat - Steve gave out a low whistle as he explored the interior. “This is really nice.”

“I know I missed you but some things about your annoying personality could have been left behind in Timbuktu or wherever you last were.”

Steve took a breath and closed his eyes as he let it out, his hands sliding over the wheel of the car and then turning on the ignition. He looked weirdly serene as he glanced over at Danny. “Balance has been restored to the universe.”

Danny just rolled his eyes and laughed. “It’s good to have you back, buddy. Now let’s go solve a murder.”

**Author's Note:**

> It is my firm belief that for Steve, the worst possible thing that could happen while he's away from Hawaii, is finding out someone he loves is hurt or killed and he wasn't there to stop it from happening. I think that realization is what would bring him back. The only conceivable way I see him leaving is if he thinks his being there puts people in danger. Which can work considering Danny being taken by Daiyu Mei. It's the only way I can in any way come to terms with the finale but it still makes me angry that he left and it always will.
> 
> But this is a lighter post 10.22 fic/scene that came to me. I am still technically working on a long depressing one but it's difficult to write because it's REALLY depressing so I don't know if it'll ever be posted. I genuinely think there's a longer road for both Steve and Danny than just what's here in this little coda, but at the same time, if there had been a season 11, this is probably the more accurate rendering of his return that anything else. They're very good at sweeping these things aside in canon!


End file.
